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In The Business

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINED AN INCREDIBLY GRAPHIC IMAGE. I MADE A DECISION TO SHOW BETTER JUDGEMENT AND REMOVED IT, HOWEVER IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH OR ARE EATING, I SUGGEST YOU READ ANY OTHER POST FROM MANY OF THE WONDERFUL DIABETES BLOGS LISTED ON THE SIDE OF THIS PAGE.

Saturday morning, some errands and cleaning. I was in my kitchenette, took a step, felt a sharp stab to my heel and pulled my foot up like a flamingo. My mind immediately flashed to the wine glass I dropped 2 weeks ago and I knew my clean-up had been less than perfect. I hopped across the room, grabbed tweezers and magnifiers (yep, jewelry supply), bent myself like a contortionist (yay flexibility) and found the offending piece, sliver, of glass. It was still partially sticking out of my heel. I was careful as can be, got the glass out (hurrah), cleaned the spot with hydrogen peroxide, made sure it bled a bit and kept it covered and clean. Whew.

Saturday night I had dinner plans and as I walked, it felt a little tender but then, on certain steps, I’d wince because it felt stabby. My favorite Mexican corn, tacos and margaritas and some walking/exploring/adventure. I wasn’t limping but I was aware that something hurt. Home, more peroxide.

Sunday was the Pride parade. My sister had never been. We had a fantastic day. I wore flip flop leather sandals and stayed out all day (according to Fitbit I walked 7.29 miles). My foot felt a little stabby still. The stab spot didn’t look red and was the tiniest of wounds. We met up with another friend. I sat on a bench and when I got up, I felt something pull on my leg. Yep, the arm of the bench hit on JUST the right angle that it pulled the Dexcom right out of my thigh. Eek. I was then the lady who reached up her dress and pulled out a Dexcom site and transmitter. I am robot, hear me roar.

Long, beautiful day, such a great parade. Love in the air, happiness in the city, catching-up with my sister, bonding with her T1D friend. A memorable day! Returned home, cleaned-up and placed a new Dexcom sensor on my thigh. The familiar pinch/stab of the Dexcom insertion. It wasn’t more or less pain. Went to place the brain (transmitter) in the sensor. WHAT IS THAT??? BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD! Dark, thick blood. What to do? Get the damn transmitter in that sensor! Little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike. Get the transmitter in! I’ve never made that happen so fast. Whew? Nope, blood coming out from AROUND sensor. Blood drops on carpet and floor. The carpet AGAIN? Really? The carpet. Yep, blood. Started sensor. Got misty. Kinda miss wearing sensor in my arm. Dog starts licking blood on floor. Always disturbing.

Sensor started. Time to clean foot. More tender but the wound was practically invisible. Peroxide did nothing. Pinched area around where glass penetration/assault happened. There must be another piece in there! Enough pressure and it bled a bit. Sunday Bloody Sunday. U2 singing in my head. I’m oh so entertaining to myself. Kept looking (with magnifiers and body bent like a contortionist). So, so, so careful. Was absolutely convinced a little shard of glass was going to pop up and out. Nope. Cleaned-up. Bloody leg Dexcom looked kinda ok and wasn’t hurting.

Calibrate Dexcom. Bed. Dexcom goes bananas overnight. ??? Oh how I hate that ???. People have Dexcom bleeders that work fine. Do they have Dexcom geysers though?

Wake up through the night. Heel hurts. Dexcom is completely wacky. 4am and I’m wide awake.

Monday morning I begged the podiatrist to see me. Got referral and was on my way. I’ve written about Dr. podiatrist before. 50+ years T1D.

Let me repeat that. My doctor is 50+ year T1D.

I can’t get enough of him.

I quickly changed my mind about our bonding time when he explained the game plan for treating my foot. No way to know if there was still glass in my foot (lead is no longer in drinking glasses so wouldn’t show up on Xray). He was going to scrape the wound. Sure, I’m down with pain. “We” would know if there was glass because he’d feel it and hear it. Ummmmm, hear it? “uhhhhh Hi, I’m glass, sorry I got stuck here in your foot. Thanks for taking me to the parade. Your sister really loves you.” Ugh. So scraping started. I kept pulling my foot back. He changed my position. I agreed completely. Yes, I AM staying 100% still. No, I was flinching. In my mind I was still. THEN it hurt! HOLY HELL!!! What was he doing to my foot??? I’ll keep the glass!!! Please keep the glass in my foot! Dr. podiatrist reclined me practically upside down. Nope, just a an upside down squirmer.

New plan. Dr Podiatrist explained this would feel worse but temporarily. Errrrrr, ok. Numb the foot. Yay! Numb my foot! Numbing will feel like fire. Fire you say? No, your foot will feel like it is burning inside, in the nerves. I gave a soliliquy on my toughness. We laughed and practiced sarcastic barbs. Cold spray on foot? Cold but doable. Injection. ACCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!

More scraping. I saw blood all over his gloves. I decided to look away. I talked about inhalable insulin and the artificial pancreas project. I blabbed about ONE walk and agreeing to a JDRF bike ride even though I don’t have a bike nor a way to get to the ride.

And then the noise! A metal blade sliding along glass. GOT IT! YAY! Clean-up time and wound dressing. No ocean, pool, lake, pond or puddles for 10 days. Use all this tape and gauze and stuff. Neosporin. 10 days to heal. UGH! No puddles? Wear real shoes. Ummmmm real shoes?

My doctor walked me out and we kept discussing the AP study in NYC. We talked a mile a minute. We talked about how no matter what you do, that balance…. the balance we all dream of, is just up to so many factors. We started listing the factors at each other and laughing. Food. Sleep. STRESS (stress got 2 votes). Exercise. Travel. Weather! Exercising in changing weather conditions. Living Life. I said carb counting. He said he doesn’t count carbs. I said he must eat the same foods all the time. He claimed no but he started listing meals and they sounded the same to me.

It was a fun conversation yet so poignant at the same time. He reiterated what I had said when I first came in. It looked like a nothing, little spot but it hurt, and hurting is good. Yes, hurting IS good. FEELING is good. It hurt, I felt it, I came in, and a minuscule piece of glass came out. I asked again about my feet. I never completely believe him, but I always ask about the condition of my feet. He tells me the same thing. He doesn’t worry about MY feet. There are certain feet that have problems. I don’t have those feet.

He wears shoes in his home. I have 2 planks on my wood floor that are chipped. I need to wear shoes at home too. Maybe flip flops. But I never thought about it. I’m careful outside. Time to be a bit more careful inside. Indoor shoes. Count me in.

I didn’t want to leave. My foot was numb and felt FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC! I wanted to stay there all day. I wanted to keep talking about finding inspiration. I promised to update him on any AP news. This would be a nice end to the story.

I walked out and took a pic of my bandaged foot. I returned to my office and everyone freaked-out. I had bled through all the dressing. I was bleeding up the tape. UP? Yep. An office mate insisted on putting huge bandaids on top of the gauze. I looked like the Frankenstein of foot injuries. I poo-pooed everyone until I saw all the blood that had soaked into my shoe. I called Dr. Podiatrist. I told him about the blood (this is where I removed the pic in this post). He said its ok. He said, in the business, “blood is good”. I laughed and explained how we DEFINITELY do not say that in MY business, ever.

So Blood is Good. Strong pulse in my feet and extremities. Strong blood flow. My blood glucose levels were outrageously high the rest of the day after the glass/scraping (so gross). Good glucose levels are key in healing. No stress there with super high BGs the rest of the day. Blood flow promotes healing.

And as for the Dexcom, It’s still in. Looking at the foot is enough Halloween Blood Manor madness for right now. I just took this pic. That’s not a shadow on the side, its a blood tie-dye. I’m going with the Dr. on this one. Blood is good and with that, I continue to learn.

One thought on “In The Business”

A,
Sorry to hear what you have been going through in the last couple days… so glad that you’re on the road to recovery…
I just want to reinforce the fact that I think that you are one Bad a$$ mother trucker…
The fact that you can share this with the DOC helps everybody… Me included…